Ford sent Cleveland's foundry tooling for the Y to Argentina. Old engine tooling is usually bought outright (for service parts), unless Ford mass produces for a specific niche.
Production head and block molds are made of silica sand and resin binders in 'hot box' core machines. (Click on the link to see a very small core machine) Noticed the parting lines on a head? Many stacked core molds comprise a cast iron head. It is an intricate one-piece manifold for air, coolant, and oil flow.
The same hot box will make each core at different times by changing mold tooling. Cast iron has a much different overall shrink than aluminum. That means, aluminum molds require different dimensions, made by a skilled Mold Maker.
Sand molds have a short shelf life, are fragile, and must be kept arid. Ford dips their cured sand molds in Refractory 'Paint', and bakes them to extract ALL moisture just before casting. Doing a run of fifty heads means hundreds of core mold components waited for the last core pieces to be made. When iron is finally poured at 3,000*F, each sand mold breaks down, is poured out, and washed out of the casting.
If you ever experience molten metal poured on trapped water, you will NEVER forget it. When the steam explodes, the earth under your feet ROCKS, and molten iron flies in every direction. First, it knocks you down because iron is heavy, then it burns immediately. It's safe to pour water on molten iron, but never pour iron (or slag) on water.
I went through this for a better understanding of why they don't just make heads (or blocks) out of a different metal. Even the machining phase is different; aluminum heads need guides and seats inserted, and usually go through a LockTite process because of metal porosity.
Royal Oak, Michigan (Four miles north of Detroit, and 12 miles NORTH of Windsor, Canada). That's right, we're north of Canada.Ford 292 Y-Block major overhaul by simplyconnected